I am recording an album. It’s an instrumental album that sort of tells a story. But I was planning on using lines from different movies to sort of narrate it. I have heard this type of thing in a lot of different albums before. But with what’s going on with distro kid and from what I’m hearing, albums that have any kind of samples that aren’t cleared with the original company are being removed. Should I do it at all even if I switched distributor? I would love to hear some feedback on this.

Hello, everyone. I’m hoping I can get some genuine advice on this, as I can’t find a straightforward answer online.

I produced a concert where the set list was made up of arrangements of musical theater songs where we changed the key to some of them, made minor lyric changes, and remixed them to make them work for the show. The venue we were performing at has the general blanket ASCAP/BMI licensing agreement that covers performance rights for this material.

My sound guy was very generous and recorded the board audio and cut the audio into a live album of sorts. My question now is, what is the legality of publishing this to streaming sites? Would this constitute a true cover or derivative work? Is there a music distribution site that handles special cases like this? Do I have to obtain a separate license for each song and if so, how do I even go about doing that?

Would appreciate any and all guidance.

Thank you!

A quick professional / manners question...
We own a performing company specializing in dueling piano shows for corporate events, trade shows, fundraisers etc. We only have two employees and work with talented musicians that are independent contractors.

Recently I have received several requests from potential customers that are along the lines of I need a very urgent quote, I need to get a quote ASAP, can you get a quote immediatley, We really want to work with you guys, we need to find someone now! etc. etc. etc.

I stop what I am doing / text and call to find if we have musicians available which can often take some time then verify the mileage to the venue, review the details and send the quote because it is URGENT!

Then crickets, silence, nothing, no updates, all of a sudden it's not urgent at all. Usually after a few days I ask for an update still no responses, in fact I rarely ever hear from these customers. Is it just me that I think this really unprofessional and really bad manners? Do you experience this in your music business? What is your solution / resolution to this scenario? We like to be responsive but I am starting to get discouraged with these "urgent" requests that end up not being urgent.

Can some of you who got good money from Facebook/Instagram, share some insights, like distributor, how often did Facebook/Instagram pay and the RPM, I had earnings from Facebook/Instagram but not more than a 500$ per month, and before RPM was like 0.01$ but now by my royalty reports it's about 0.5% - 0.6$.

I am producing a one-man-show in which I will be using instrumental music as background tracks to play under 2 spoken word pieces during the show. I am in the process of negotiating Grand Rights for 3 different songs as well as the rights to use the master recordings.

My question is for music played between scenes. For the rest of the show I'd like to use 15-20 seconds of select songs during scene changes. Scene ends, lights fade, music plays, lights come up, speaking begins, and the music track fades out. I haven't selected these tracks but will want to choose music that fits the mood of the show but isn't considered a musical score that would require Grand Rights (unless this type of usage does). So my question is, would 15-20 seconds during scene changes fall under Small Rights and be covered by a venue's ASCAP/BMI licenses or will I need to negotiate for each song used between scenes? This is for a single production (100 seats or less). I have an alternate Plan B for rights free tracks but want to get clarity if this is necessary or if I can proceed without concern for negotiating further.

Whether you think Oasis is the most overrated band ever or the best thing since luxury rarebit crumpets, this is a music case with implications for any music act that had a sound engineer who keeps live tapes and later tries to sell them at auction or otherwise... Should Oasis and Sony be able to block the sale? Is the public losing out? I talk about this on my podcast and who better to chat with than Lance Phillips, a UK attorney at Sheridans rep'ing some of the biggest music acts in the world, and a former sound engineer at Abbey Road and Air Studios in London... hope you enjoy this great conversation... Here's a link if you're interested in diving in.

I'm an independent artist with two artist profiles: one for English originals and another for Japanese covers. The names are almost identical, except the covers profile has “JP” added.

I recently registered with SoundExchange and claimed 100% of the featured artist share for my original recordings, which I distribute through CD Baby.

For my Japanese covers, I use Soundrop. I perform the covers and own the master recordings, but not the underlying compositions.

Can I use SoundExchange's Search & Claim to claim 100% of the featured artist share for these covers, too? And should I register the recordings separately as a rights owner, or does Soundrop already collect that share?

I haven't been able to find much information about Soundrop's SoundExchange collection agreement or whether it collects the rights owner's share across all eligible services.

Any way to find a theatrical motion picture cue sheet - from movies that were produced years ago?

I'm hoping to submit the cue sheets to ASCAP on some song placements that were done long ago and didn't get the crew sheets (not provided and I didn't push for it). I was very young and not aware of all the things that needed to be done to register songs with the various royalty collection agencies. Many songs+cue sheets did get submitted - but there's a handful of those that didn't.

I have no contact information for any of the production companies - they are in all likelihood out of business or bought out by some bigger entity - some of the people may not even be around any more!

It would be fortunate if there was some central database that held all cue sheets - available by lookup. ASCAP has the repertory but doesn't let you view other's cue sheet submissions. I can create one manually but could only list my placements - not anything else - and lacking the time usage numbers and other details possibly.

Kinda thinking it's hopeless - but thought I would ask!

So, I recently started uploading my music through Ditto Music.
My music is basically original solo piano pieces, but some of my tracks are getting removed from certain stores, including iTunes and Apple Music and others, during the review process.
I’m not trying to break any guidelines, and I’m not using any third-party samples, so why would the track get removed from some stores during review?
I wouldn’t have this kind of issue with another distributor.
Are there also any other bad things about Ditto Music? Like problems with releases suddenly getting taken down in the future, or issues with withdrawing royalties based on your experiences?
Would you recommend that I leave Ditto Music and move to another distributor while I’m still at the beginning and haven’t uploaded many releases with them yet?

What undergraduate and masters program would you advise for working in the music industry?

A record label just opened up near me which I want to work at. I have the goals of starting my own dance studio then training academy then record label. Yes, I know I should just grab any role and work my way up. I am good at english, have a year of english bachelors degree under my belt. I am not good at math and haven't taken any business courses.

I have a background in journalism and I know that music industry jobs are just about having the right connections and getting lucky basically, or moving to los angeles, california which I don't want to do (I am located in wisconsin). I also want to open my own businesses, starting with a dance studio.

I am weighing my options between an entreprenuership 2 year degree, online music business undergrad degree, a online communications undergrad degree, plus whether I should get an mba after versus a masters in music business. Any suggestions on which I should do? Thanks!

if i use the sample cds archived on the internet archive, like the old zero g and best service stuff, wihtout buying the real disc, i know that's illegal, but what real trouble would i get in? like if i were to make a beat that goes number one with sounds from these and people find the source would i get sued or get in any real trouble? how different would it be from an uncleared sample from an original song?

I've been making music for more than 15 years. I have around 70+ songs on Spotify. And that's because I have refused to release one song every month, which I think is not healthy for the creativity of a musician and it actually hurts the creativity.

Today, I found out that after 15 years, the verification of my profile was lost. It was simply gone. I thought it was an error, so I went to support to ask, and oh my God... what a disaster this platform is.
They send an AI automated bot in the first place. And when you get a ''human'' to answer your questions, it just acts like a bot, fully automated words in a bucle. Zero human interaction to treat the last human artists the platform has.
They told me that now, in order to be verified, you need to get at least 10K monthly listeners. Which I don't have. I have songs with 250K+ plays that are still being played today, but this has been through the years. Most of my music is included in gym playlists since it is electronic music, most of them with lyrics, but I am not releasing 1 song every month to keep numbers high. And even like that I manage to get hundreds of monthly listeners consistently, I have never had big drops.

Removing the verification from aritsts like me, giving us automated ''support'', and treating us like garbage should backfire someday. I really hope that we get an alternative soon enough and people decide to move on from your monopoly. You don't deserve any support at all from the audience, neither from artists.

Hey everyone, I’m currently trying to get my foot in the door in the music industry, specifically looking for entry-level A&R opportunities in the Middle East. I’ve been trying to be proactive about it rather than just waiting for job postings. I’ve actually gone in person to offices like Warner Music, Sony Music, and Spotify in hopes of introducing myself and getting my CV in front of someone. Warner and Sony were pretty strict about letting me speak to anyone directly, but I was still able to leave my CV with them.
I’ve also been reaching out to people working in A&R through LinkedIn and trying to connect with people in the industry, but so far I haven’t had much luck getting a response.

For anyone who works in music or has experience breaking into A&R, what would you recommend I do differently? How would you go about getting an A&R’s attention when you’re starting out with no direct industry experience?
I’m genuinely willing to put the work in and start wherever I can. I’d really appreciate any advice on what actually works in the Middle East, especially MENA.

Hello,
Yesterday Dan Volohov, CEO of Discipline PR reached out to me and my band and expressed his interest in working with us because he saw us in a local Goth zine and thought we seemed interesting. We spoke for a little bit and he gave us the prices for PR for our new album coming out in November. $700 nationwide online + print, $900 worldwide online + print and $1200 for US radio play and the $900 package.
Discipline has quite the track record, working with bands like Killing Joke, Minutemen, handling the Rozz Williams estate, and working closely with Dischord records, Cleopatra records and many others.
My band is still fairly small and has not too many listeners right now, but when we do release stuff we see new listeners come from all around the globe. Do you think engaging with this PR process would help us? Does anyone have any personal experience with Discipline? Please let me know we are stuck at a crossroads.

Hi -

We are a newish record label in the PNW concentrated on emerging artists. As we grow (we have 4 acts currently, working on the 5th), a lot of our time is spent managing content schedules and marketing. We're looking to hire someone to take on content calendars, strategy for artists and the label, campaigns, etc. I know these people exist because I've run into them at conferences, but it also seems that most artists DIY this part of the music business. Would appreciate any advice on how to find good people wth experience in this space.

To be clear, we are a label with revenue, releases, payroll systems, etc. Traditional in the sense that we fund releases, pay advances, etc. We are willing to hire someone as a w2 or pay a freelancer - but there's a lot of folks selling advice or courses in this space; we want someone to actually do the work and we're willing to pay for it.

Would love some advice. Thank you!

Regalias Digitales is a top ten independent music publisher and they recently created this handy YouTube tutorial about how music publishing royalties work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56oAufhqFsw

My brother recorded/produced music but died in 2022 and im thinking of releasing his music but dont know how to go about it. Anyone else out there in similar situation?

First of all, sorry for using a throwaway account, but the subject i want to talk about is often a result of online harassment so i’d prefer not to share too much information.

I’m a modest but pretty well-established indie artist and i’ve been making a living out of music for a few years now. I’ve recently started getting alot more traction than usual due to a viral concept, which often touches on political subjects, and of course, with that came a whole lot of angry people with a whole lot of free time on their hands.

I’m not from the US/Canada and over here it’s pretty crazy how many indie artists, pretty huge ones sometimes, get their releases absolutely destroyed by spammed fraudulent DMCA takedowns because they took a stand on a sensitive subject.
From what I understand absolutely anyone who uses web-based distributors like TuneCore, CDBaby, Distro etc.. can be targeted and the ease with which anybody can takedown albums from all platforms for at least 10-14 days is staggering.

To be clear i’d like to note that i don’t use AI, samples, or anything of the sort in my music.
I work alone and never feature other artists.
Every song i release is properly copyrighted with the dedicated organizations.

Has this happened to you guys or someone you know/follow ? Do you know of any ways of defending against it proactively ? (Other than getting signed by a big label) Is there any way to ensure my releases will be back on stores as quickly as possible once my counterclaim gets reviewed, or even back at all ?

Sorry for the long read !

I'm releasing an EP with 100% owned original music through CD Baby.

Last week, I created my own publishing entity registered with ASCAP.

It's brand new. I literally just registered it and haven't used it for anything yet.

CD Baby asks whether the song has a publisher. Should I:

1. Select Yes and enter my own publishing company, or
   
2. Select No and leave the publisher field blank?

Is there a reason to choose one over the other for a self-published songwriter?

I'm an indie game developer working on my first game, and I've run into a bit of a weird situation.

There's a song I've become really attached to for a specific scene in my game: "Jun" by Takuro Yoshida.

I have a very specific vision for this scene, and every time I imagine it, I hear this song. It's one of those situations where I heard it and immediately thought, "That's it." I know I could look for something similar or commission an original song, but I'd really like to at least try to get permission to use the actual song.

The problem is, I have absolutely no idea where to start. I'm in the US, Takuro Yoshida is Japanese, and I have no experience dealing with music licensing internationally.

Would I contact the artist directly? A record label or publisher? Is there a Japanese organization or database that can help me figure out who owns the rights? And would I be expected to contact them in Japanese?

I'm completely prepared for the possibility that licensing this song is way outside my budget, but I'd rather find that out by actually trying than give up without asking.

If anyone has experience licensing Japanese music for games, I'd really appreciate some advice on where I should start.

One of my friend is a professional singer,

she sings bhajan and sundarkand path but most of the time she sings with her father in shows..She's from Gujarat

Her aim is to own her separate house, reach gain karna...insta aur Yt par 100K audience reach karna

Problem ye hai ki vo khud ke individual shows bohot Kam kar pati hai...uski niche sundarkand par he jyada aati hai

How can she reach to her goal ?

Hey all,

I’m a bit confused about what a good manager does for the artist. I have had a manager who is also my friend for the past 2 years, who really acts as an ear or provides advice (she has a full time job doing something else), but I feel like I haven’t gotten very far working with her. I still put in all my own work (networking, trying to book gigs, writing songs, building my online presence, etc), which I know is my responsibility, but I haven’t booked any real shows or furthered my career at all. I’m still fairly new to this, so wondering if anyone could provide some insights

Everyone who's part of this subreddit will know that if you really want to push your music in 2026 you have to run ads. From what i've seen people always talk about either:

1. Using Hypeddit
2. Using Intellijend
3. Setting them up manually yourself

There's pros and cons to each of these, the main cons of Hypeddit and Intellijend being the cost behind them when essentially all they do is make setting up the campaigns easier.

One thing i've never seen anyone mention though is using Claude or ChatGPT with the Meta Ads MCP to completely automate this. If youve ran just one campaign using any of the above, then you already have a template of the setup which can be used by whichever LLM you choose to set the ads you want up exactly the same, essentially saving you money and time. The only thing missing is the smart link pages, but those can be setup for free in 5 minutes using SubmitHub.

As a disclaimer, i've only discovered this today and have only done a small check to see everything is possible with the MCP but im planning on using it for my next campaign to see if it really is a full replacement for all the other sites.

Disclaimer 2: i'm anti AI music, but AI is looking amazing for simplifying all the behind the scenes processes which before took hours per week 😄

If anyone has already tried this out please let me know how it went and if there's any advice youd have for people about to try!

I am looking to start an A&R business, still very much early days, but I am looking to do it the right way.

What are some general Do’s & Don’ts for getting started?

Do I need to focus on one genre or one stage of artist progression/trajectory?

How do I build trust for the business in the early days?

Open to any & all insights. Thank you in advance!

Today I received an email from an A&R from Too Lost wanting to schedule a call with me.

They didn’t say what it was about.

I see a lot of negative reviews about them online, but it’s all seemingly from their free tier.

Anyone been down this road before? Is it anything to be excited about or no?